FORMER GOP GOVERNOR WANTS POT LEGAL

A former New Mexico Republican governor on a national campaign to
push for the legalization of marijuana found support yesterday in
Columbia at the Muleskinners Democratic Club.

Gary Johnson, an entrepreneur-turned-two-term governor, was making
the rounds in Columbia this week. He spoke to University of Missouri
School of Law students Thursday and addressed the Muleskinners at
their weekly luncheon before heading to a meeting last night of the
Mid-Missouri Chapter of the ACLU.

Johnson dubbed himself the only elected official to have voiced
support for legalized marijuana while in office from 1995 to 2003.
That said, he has talked to lawmakers from both political parties who
said privately that they support the idea.

Johnson said he began speaking out against the war on drugs as
governor after he tried to crack down on drunken driving in his
state. He was told law enforcement didn't have the resources to
significantly curtail the problem and the court system was too
overburdened to deal with an influx of cases involving driving while
intoxicated.

Come to find out half of what police were doing and half of what law
enforcement was doing and half of what the courts were doing was drug
related," he said.

Johnson said he began looking into legalization of pot as an
alternative. "Little did I know the compelling reasons for legalizing
it," he said.

Just as Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol,
keeping marijuana illegal doesn't make sense, he said, noting that it
turns otherwise law-abiding, taxpaying citizens into criminals.

Ninety percent of drug problems are prohibition related, not use
related," he said.

Johnson -- who admitted to using alcohol and marijuana in the past --
said he considers pot the safer substance.

Legalizing it, he estimated, would bring in between $7 billion to $11
billion in taxes annually. That's noteworthy in light of the fact
that the country is bankrupt, Johnson said, blaming the steep deficit
on recent wars as well as programs such as Medicare.

Although Columbia's Democratic group embraced his support for
legalizing marijuana, partisan lines were quickly drawn at the
mention of health care. One audience member countered that Medicare
was necessary because elder Americans could not get affordable insurance.

A free-market proponent, Johnson suggested that no American actually
goes without health care.

"You're delusional if you think everyone has health care," audience
member Kay Callison interjected, adding that waiting until someone
needs a trip to the emergency room doesn't count.

To Johnson's repeated warnings that the nation is bankrupt,
Muleskinners member Eleanore Wickersham quipped: "Maybe the solution
is to tax marijuana and put it toward our health care system."

Other audience members also tried to keep the discussion focused on
marijuana, an issue on which both sides agreed.

Audience member Steve Skolnick questioned whether conservative
lawmakers over the past three decades have turned the debate into a
moral issue rather than a public health issue.

"It's the tail wagging the dog," he said. "How do we, as rational
people, look at the issue and have rational discussions when a very
dedicated minority sets policies?"

A recent poll showed 44 percent of Americans are in favor of
legalizing marijuana, Johnson replied.

"That's the highest it's ever been," he said. "We're close to a tipping point."